Wine sales discussion

wookie_2

woofbrains wrote: »

NEVER BUY HALF PRICE WINES FROM SUPERMARKETS - PLEASE READ

I felt compelled to register to use the forum for the first time to comment on this, and what I have to say is this:

I honestly cannot believe Martin Lewis has fallen for one of the biggest supermarket cons going. He might not be a wine drinker, but I would have expected him to be wise in the ways of their behaviour. I'm a huge fan of his work, and have had bank charge repaid thanks to his campaign, but I despair that he has not picked up on this yet.

I'm sure it will come as no surprise to learn that big wine companies and supermarkets themselves take a bulk wine that normally sells for £5, use that bulk and bottle it under a different brand or a sub brand (special reserve, limited selection, superb bin etc) and set the retail price at £10. They then sell it for half price a few times a year or until all the bulk has gone. Its decent wine for £5, but it was never worth £10. The tragedy is that quite a lot of people buy these wines at full price when its not on offer.

Basically, supermarkets are laughing at you for being gullible and naive. They know you will all come rushing through the doors and stock up on the 'half price' wines so you can tell your friends when they come round "ooh Janet drink this it was half price" "ooh its gorgeous i'll call in tomorrow and buy some before its all gone".

The half price deals are now an important part of the big supermarkets' wine strategy. I know it's tempting, but you just need to adjust your BullSh!t detector to sniff out the lies.

Martin Lewis, please stop your free advertising for the supermarkets. You have taken your eye off the ball on this one.

We all complain about the price of vegetables and milk, well that's what's funding the 3 for £10 we are all so keen on. The best buys are usually £8.50 down to £6/6.50. Most people have a ceiling of £5, that's a great shame.

So once again...

NEVER EVER BUY HALF PRICE WINES FROM THE SUPERMARKET!!

Totally agree with the above.
We buy our wine from a local producer who grows his own grapes and produces a wonderfull wine in the heart of Surrey, and in sussex. As I usually buy in bulk both in bottles and in 5 litre containers they offer a good discount very similar to the spoof offers of the supermarkes, so its a win win for us......:beer:

Clive_Woody

I appreciate the half price wine scam is just that, but some of the wines are perfectly passable for everyday drinking.

In the most recent MSE mailing Martin noted that Tesco was once again offering a lot of wines at 50% off. I had a quick look and there were a few I quite like plus a £10 off voucher and a free premium delivery offer I had so this seemed quite an acceptable deal.

Unfortunately I got an error message when I tried to place the order, something about an invalide eCoupon. I phoned their helpline and they issued a replacement £10 voucher. This still didn't work.

I eventually got through to their Tech-line who told me the problem was being caused by an expired voucher in my online grocery account. I deleted this and found that both £10 vouchers were then being discounted.

So lots of wine at 50% off (yes, yes, I know, but I would never buy it at full price), free premium delivery, an extra £20 off, all done through Topcashback and paid for with my MBNA Amex card (both giving extra cashback).

Quite pleased with that.

Clive_Woody

wookie wrote: »

Totally agree with the above.
We buy our wine from a local producer who grows his own grapes and produces a wonderfull wine in the heart of Surrey, and in sussex. As I usually buy in bulk both in bottles and in 5 litre containers they offer a good discount very similar to the spoof offers of the supermarkes, so its a win win for us......:beer:

My wife used to work at Bookers vineyard in Sussex if that's the one you get your wine from.

Halfwayhouse

Hi
Re the Tesco wine offers section:
You state:
Half price wine sale
Tesco has more than 50 cases of wine at half price, which can be combined with codes below to make the deal even sweeter. The minimum order is one case (six bottles) plus you also get free delivery.
However you are wrong as there is NOT unconditional free delivery. The terms are copied pasted here:
Checkout - Delivery options
Which delivery option would you like?



Please select a delivery option from the following list.

• Next day delivery £5.00

FREE for orders over £99.00

Available for orders placed before midday (Sunday – Friday) in most areas. Your order will be delivered by courier from Monday to Saturday 7am - 7pm. If you may not be in all day for your delivery, please give us detailed instructions of a safe place to leave your order when you checkout.

• Premium delivery £6.25

FREE for orders over £140.00

Select a delivery date and time of your choice from one of our two hour delivery slots available 7 days a week. Your order will be delivered by one of our Tesco.com grocery vans

itsagoodday

i have been drinking wine for more years than i care to remember but it seems to be supermarkets are almost weekly bringing in new suppliers which i have never heard of , it seems to be 50% off these new wines is the norm ,reduced fom £12.00 to £6.00 , they are never worth the full amount quoted why dont we get a true reduction on some old favourites ie, louis jadot or no doubt you have your own , it this was reduced to £5.00/ £6.00 a bottle i would accept this as a true reduction

maninbag

At Middlebrook today, half price 'wine festival' promo is still on but now with added 25% off all wine, providing you buy 6 bottles.

Poster had fine print and I had no glasses, but it did say until 2 Oct. Not sure about online.

stork_2

antrobus wrote: »

To be honest with you, I've always filed away supermarket half price wine offers in the same drawer as DFS's half price sofa offers. I'm happy to discover that my instinctive prejuduce actually has some factual basis.

Absolutely right. If the 'half-price' wines were actually 'worth' £8-£10, that's what they'd sell for most of the time. But they're not. They might get displayed on a top shelf for a while to achieve 'price establishment' (the dishonest practice of nominally offering a product for sale at an inflated price to make the real price look better later on), but £10 wines they're not.

Every supermarket has half-price wine, or an equivalent offer, all the time. So what happens to the people who have been buying 'half-price' X wine at £5 when the offer comes to an end? Do they go and buy X at £10 for the next 5 months until the offer comes around again? Of course not. They move onto 'half-price' Y at £5 etc. etc. When you realise that the product is just 'wine' rather than any specific wine, then you realise that the true 'was' price is just the same as the 'is' price.

Any business which consistently sells a product worth £10 for £5 is stupid. And the supermarkets may be many things, but stupid isn't one of them.

There are good deals to be had, like the £7-£8 wines which sometimes get reduced to £6-ish on a promotion. Or end-of-line clearance (I picked up some of Lidl's Rioja Reserva -- usually £5 -- at £3 recently just before they changed label/supplier).

I have a lot of respect for MSE, but I agree with other comments here that there is a tendency to place too much trust in reference prices. Half-price wine is a scam, and MSE should not be promoting it.

And the problem runs through a lot of other categories and bits of information on the site, such as the Amazon price finder. 70% off what? Surely Martin doesn't believe that the reference prices quoted on Amazon are all, or even mostly, genuine (i.e. prices that the product has really, and realistically, been offered and sold at)? The same phenomenon pervades not only the furniture and electrical retailers, but clothing retailers, supermarkets and countless others.

Although people take reference prices with a pinch of salt, the research shows that they are still influenced by them. Try a tablespoon of salt instead.

mobrien18

Far better than buying the "half price" plonk peddled by supermarkets is to peruse their fine wine section. The quality of the wine is far, far superior, and bargains can often be found.

I purchased a 2006 Barolo, made by a reputable winemaker, from Marks and Spencer for £10, instead of the usual £22. These discounts aren't well advertised and need to be sought out, but you are getting a genuinely good deal.

birkland

today i went to my local sainsburys to get the champagne deals i got i of them but was told that the money supermarket site was wrong,the antoine de clevecy brut is not on any offers at the moment,can you say if this is correct or not

floater010

Well said. Tesco don't seem to realize how much competition they have out there. Some of their half-price wines are utter rubbish and definitely not even worth the cut! The best place for them is to be left on the shelf!